Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was an English novelist and poet. The daughter of a wealthy railway magnate, Paula Power inherits
De Stancy Castle, an ancient castle in need of modernization. She
commissions George Somerset, a young architect, to undertake the work. Somerset falls in love with Paula but she, the Laodicean of the title, is torn between his admiration and that of Captain De Stancy, whose old-world romanticism contrasts with
Somerset’s forward-looking attitude.